Pattern Recognition

Reviewer: Jake Beal

Author: William Gibson

Published: 2003

Reviewed: 2007-04-30

Publisher: Putnam

The first thing I noticed when I began to read William Gibson's newestbook, "Pattern Recognition," is that it doesn't appear to be sciencefiction. Gone are the far-out days of bionic implants and cyberspace.Gone even are the closer days of nanotechnology and artificial intelligencefrom "Idoru" and "All Tomorrow's Parties." For all we know, the eventsof "Pattern Recognition" could be playing out right this moment in oddcorners of the Internet.

I found this unsettling, at first. After all, Gibson is the father ofcyberpunk, and stands iconically for some sort of special derangedmodernity. And then I got it: William Gibson doesn't need to writescience fiction any more. His future has arrived. It doesn't looklike the one he used to write about, not on the surface at least. Wedon't have cyberware and cyberspace and Rastafarian space stations.Certainly nothing from the more outre stories in "Burning Chrome."But although all those decorations are the most powerful legacy ofhis work, though they literally define a genre, they were never thepoint.

This is the thing that most cyberpunk authors fail to get (MichaelSwanwick and Walter Jon Williams are notable exceptions---NealStephenson is not). I say Gibson's vision of the future is aboutnothing more or less than a psychological climate. His worlds aresmall, filled with the scent of competition, of obsolescence, of avague sense of panic that some force can reach out of nowhere andscrew up your life for reasons you'll never really understand. Hisworld is totally under control of humans and at the same timecareening out of control, too many players, big and little, allpushing this way and that gumming up the works. You're never reallyalone, and if you stop running, you might as well drop out of therace. It's not the technology, it's the way it shrinks the world andmakes us all both powerful and vulnerable at the same time.

William Gibson doesn't need to write science fiction any more. Hisworld has arrived. Cayce Pollard, fencing with an advertising startupin "Pattern Recognition," is no different than Marly fencing withJosef Virek in "Count Zero." ParkaBoy doing detective work on theInternet is no different than Laney doing his data witchery in"Idoru." The stark discordant closeness and distance of thecharacters is something we are all learning, when it's easier to talkwith distant friends than nearby neighbors.

But enough philosophy. You want to know about the book. Well, I'llsay this much: it's well done. One thing that has improved in Gibson'swriting over the years is his storytelling. The disjointness and senseof alienation feels deliberate rather than a product of presentation, and the story is quite compelling. Is it good? I suppose. I don'tknow if I learned anything by reading it, and it's certainly notcyberpunk in the Genre sense, so don't read it if that's what you want.

But actually, I suppose I did get something out of it. Not somethingI'm particularly comfortable with, but something about our world, andwhat it is becoming. I don't think I like it, but it's true. Afterall, William Gibson doesn't need to write science fiction any more.And if that fact intrigues you, you should read this book.